Sears Holdings Corp., one of several struggling big-box retailers, is splitting off more than 1,000 Hometown, Outlet and hardware stores as a separate, public company. The spinoff will affect 1,238 stores total. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. will trade under the “SHOS” symbol on Nasdaq. The new company will sell home appliances, hardware, tools and lawn and garden equipment, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hometown stores are mostly independently owned, based in smaller communities and often offering proprietary Sears products such as Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard.

The Muppets are well within their rights to shun Chick-fil-A after the chain restaurant donated to anti-gay groups and its president, Dan Cathy, made statements implying a strong, biblically-based stand against same-sex marriage. They're private, um, puppets. But public officials have a responsibility to carry out their ministerial tasks fairly and evenhandedly - and to uphold the principle of free speech - whether or not they like a business executive's social or political stances. We disagree heartily with Cathy, but are far more troubled by the reaction of Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who vowed to block Chick-fil-A's effort to open an outlet in that city.

Smashburger has brought its brand of so-called better burgers to Thousand Oaks, the first of as many as 60 outlets it plans to open in the Los Angeles area in the next seven years. The Denver fast-casual chain arrives with a luminous pedigree and solid potential. Its founder, Tom Ryan, has shaped menus and marketing campaigns at McDonald's, Quiznos, Long John Silver's and Pizza Hut. And last year, Forbes named Smashburger the most promising company in the country, beating out tech companies, alternative energy start-ups and healthcare firms.

The former chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has filed a $50-million lawsuit against two Los Angeles County health officials who he claimed conspired to leak news about his suspension to The Times and other media outlets. In August 2011, Dr. Gail V. Anderson Jr. was placed on paid administrative leave from the job he'd held for more than a dozen years. Soon after, The Times and The Daily Breeze published stories about what Anderson's suit called his "humiliating public expulsion," in which he was escorted out of the hospital.

The leaders of the Museum of Contemporary Art's board of trustees said Friday that chief curator Paul Schimmel resigned and was not fired, as The Times and other news outlets had reported. Board co-chairs Maria Bell and David Johnson said that Schimmel announced his resignation to both of them Monday. "Paul wanted to resign, we reported that to the board, and the official resignation came through today," Bell said. "This is something that has been a general discussion for some time," said Johnson.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Inside the courtroom of Jerry Sandusky's trial, the testimony is graphic. Intimate touches. Oral sex. Shower scenes. The news media has descended on the Centre County Courthouse to capture the trial in words and images. But because Pennsylvania bans cameras in most courtrooms, a trio of sketch artists employed by the media organizations offers a peek into an emotional world. One captures a distraught accuser with his face in his hands after an aggressive cross-examination.

BEIJING - "Beijing power struggle heralds end of China Communist Party," screams one headline. More sensational headlines purport to reveal how the wife of recently sacked Politburo member Bo Xilai poisoned an Englishman, who may have been her lover. And if that weren't enough, other stories claim that "Bo planned airline crash" and "slept with more than 100 women. " It's payback time for Chinese exiles, especially those with a printing press, television station or just a computer at their disposal.

You absolutely have, have, have to get up at 6 a.m. - for a meeting at work, a flight to Paris, a casting call for your dog to be in a Fido's Faves commercial. But you worry. You don't trust yourself. You've snored through alarms before. Fear not. There are gadgeteers out there who've got your back. Some examples: Math Alarm Clock: An Android app that plays music you've chosen to wake up to. That might sound a tad sleep-through-able for a hard-core zzz-ster, except that it plays and plays and plays the music until you come up with the right answer to a math problem.

Worldwide rights to the Fred Segal name, a moniker that over the last five decades has become a sort of shorthand for the Los Angeles fashion-shopping experience, have been purchased by a New York City firm for an undisclosed sum. Sandow Media, which announced the acquisition, said the deal will allow it to put the iconic red, white and blue Fred Segal logo on merchandise as well as build Fred Segal stores around the world. Not included in the deal are the two brick-and-mortar Fred Segal retail centers — one on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles and one in Santa Monica.

SANFORD, Fla. — As George Zimmerman's attorney filed a motion for the judge in the Trayvon Martin murder case to step aside, several media outlets sought Monday to unseal court documents. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of the unarmed African American teenager on Feb. 26 in Sanford. The case has sparked national demonstrations and raised questions about race and gun control. Zimmerman, who is white and Latino, says he acted in self-defense.